People. She has nude pictures of herself on the wall.
Everyone is pretty much smitten with her.
I think we all know exactly what kind of, huge-obvious-quote-fingers “donations” end-huge-obvious-quote-fingers, she has been receiving.

So what I’m getting here is that “donations” is a euphemism for a prostitution ring, or possibly for an elaborate operation where you kill criminals and take their money?

What? No, Sigrid says, she’s just talking about regular, voluntary donations from people who support what she is trying to do. People who come in here, look around, and decide they want to help the Kvatch Mages Guild get back on its feet. You know…

People like you.

Twentydragon wrote:

Katia, you do not have enough money for that right now. You still have jobs to do and food to eat. Maybe if you pick up enough jobs or dance your tail off at the arena you’ll have enough. Just remember what you’re actually supposed to be doing here, and don’t miss your appointment to walk back with Asotil.

Oh!

Well, you tell Sigrid you do like this place, and what she’s done with it is very respectable, but you’re not really in any position to donate money right now. I mean, if she needs help with any errands you’d be happy to oblige, or if she –

Sigrid cuts you off and says if you’re short on coin, there are plenty of other things the Guildhall needs. Maybe you’ve got some unusual alchemical ingredients you never use?

You tell her you already sold all that stuff to Tavia.

An old enchanted item?

Just your amulet, you say, and you need that to keep from starting fires.

A dimebag of moon sugar, perhaps?

You explain that you only tried it once, and it turned out you were allergic.

Maybe an old magic book you’ve already r-

ComputerSherpa wrote:

This feels like a scam. She has glittering mountains of gold lying around, but she can’t stretch it to cover an alembic and a dagger? Sigrid seems nice, but this place has a nasty reputation. Tread carefully, little mage.

JJA wrote:

Sigrid is angling for something, and if you’re not careful, you’re going to wind up giving her every septim you’ve been saving up to buy Quill Weave’s book, or worse. I know you want to get into the guild very badly, but a reputable guild hall should not make you pay to get in!

ExOttoyuhr wrote:

This place is looking really sketchy again. Make your excuses and get out; at least you got a good meal out of it, and you know you’re qualified to join the Mages’ Guild back in Anvil.

This direction is starting to make you very, very uncomfortable.

You thank Sigrid for the meal and her hospitality but say you should probably be leaving now, before it gets… too much darker outside.

Sigrid notices your discomfort and tells you to hold on. She apologizes, and admits that she was maybe pushing a little too hard with the donations thing.

Yeah, you tell her, she kinda was.

She says she didn’t mean to scare you off, she just wanted to make sure you knew what sort of resources the Guild could use. Most people give something after she’s had a chance to talk to them, but there’s no obligation to do so. Everyone is welcome here, whether they donate or not. If you’re willing to stick around a bit longer, she was just about to serve dessert. We’ve got ice cream!

You ask what flavor.

Strawberry, she says.

You tell her your interest is piqued.

You confess your reaction was probably a bit unwarranted. When she started asking about all the stuff you were carrying, you guess you were kinda worried she was going to mug you or something.

Sigrid says it’s fine, she realizes she probably could’ve approached the topic better. She assures you that, like all Mages Guild branches, this place is run lawfully and by-the-book. She would never, ever take something from a visitor without their permission.

Yeah, you say. Mages are pretty cool about stuff like that, you don’t even know why you were worried.

Anyway, she’s gonna go get that ice cream now. Wait here.

Sigrid says you look very pretty and asks if she can have all your stuff.

…not the Dino, ok that does it. First this crazy little bipolar bitch is nice then she steals our Katias money and everything, at first I liked her for the random person she was, but that is going too far! You have made a powerful enemy today sigrid, the only reason I don’t want some super powered monster to attack you right now is because I see a budding friendship between Dino and katia, if you mess that up, screw logic puzzles, they are going to need einstein to put you back together!

Vanguard

i thought the same thing. Its bad enough she steals all of Katia’s hard earned stuff, but now she also steals Eepy’s?!

That’s messed up man…

Please let Asotil burst through the door again for no apparent reason and stab her…

Zerithos

Cue Gro-Upp. Anyway, I just killed Sigrid thirty times in thirty different ways in Oblivion. And I’m gathering troops to kill an entire army of copies. Not that I really need them- overkill is fun and in this case is a bit underkill to my point.

Started off with a threat of how she could kill her before she could even blink/get up from chair. Discussed her lifestyle choices, told a joke, and now, compliment Katia.

God dang it. I was beginning to like Sigrid. And here I thought she was going to become a means to a stable support in Katia’s life. A constant.

But now we know why no one ever talks about the Kvatch Mages Guild -.-

drdroo

In addition to those things happening, Katia revealed to us the 2 that don’t work on her:

“Though her jokes are kind of lame and her bragging is maybe a little irritating.”

Also Sigrid probably realized that the threat worked okay, but the compliment worked best earlier (Katia was glowing when Sigrid said Stephane was “the 3rd best mage here”) and so she did it again after using the perfume/bug musk.

Nice little addition.

Campion

That’s a Spiddal Stick!

Asmodeus42

…I don’t know why, but your post makes me want to point at thins and tell people they’re Spindle Sticks…

….did you just put on perfume?

Smoky

trust me that doesnt work…
fuckin chuck testa…

Henry

Katia, Quickly! Hold your nose and get back to reality! You didnt come this far just to “give away” all your items that you worked so hard to get!

(on the other hand, Sigrid may find most of the items useless and leave them. But she will probably kill you and throw your dead body behind that door with all the bloodstains, think about it).

I knew this would be the case, See she isn’t magic or anything she is just a master of persuasion thanks to alchemy, it is like what every player ever does when they chug a potion of personality + and than sell a single steel gauntlet for a merchants life savings

Halbean

Haha, I like how even the little dino-thing Sigrid summoned had some stuff on it as well~

Ragin

That’s it. I’m done with this horseshit. I’m convinced that the author is just an artfag with an idea for an extended troll. Every fucking time we suggest ANYTHING GOOD OR SENSIBLE she ignores it or emos it away. But the FEW SINGULAR TIMES we suggest anything bad or even make a pun it immediately becomes part of the plot. The author is absolutely determined to keep this character as pathetic as possible with no chance of salvation or redemption in spite of all the good advice we’ve given her. Fuck Katia and fuck the conductor of this railroad story.

Ryuujin

It *is* subtitled “making a cat cry” :p

I’m sure there’s other, happier webcomics out there if you look.

JC 042

What were you expecting? Some ‘Freindship is Magic’ shit? This fits pretty well with the lore with what WOULD happen minus Katia being brutaly murdered. And if it wasnt a rail rode webcomic there wouldnt be an author and with no author no comic, because we cant do this shit ourselves especialy as a group.

LP

Uhh. Did you *read* the comic? That’s kinda the point. Katia is a sadly normal person in a world made for heroes.

Motherfucker

Bitch you clearly do not grasp the nature of a hurt comfort fic.

She gets screwed metaphoricly or literally, she recovers, she gets screwed again, this is the formula carrot and stick carrot and stick clickity clack down the railroad tracks.

Yeah, bad things are going to happen. The fact remains that Prequel might as well be a normal webcomic, because it’s become blatantly obvious that all of our input and suggestions mean precisely jack squat. Kaz is going to do what Kaz is going to do, and might as well stop wasting all our time with the farce of pretending to be an MSPA comic.

l.e.

Andrew Hussie does the same thing…

Solivagus

And that makes it right somehow?

FuzzyZergling

@Solivagus Are you saying there’s something wrong with having the basic plot worked out beforehand?
Because in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with having the plot worked out beforehand.

Solivagus

Are you saying there’s nothing wrong with being forced into specific actions along every step of the way?
Because in my opinion, there’s something wrong with being forced into specific actions along every step of the way.

This has gone way beyond “basic plot” at this point.

Dax

Yes. Yes there is.

Because it’s not an adventure then. It’s just reading of a story where the audience gets to decide the color of the princess’ dress.

Motherfucker

Yes, Let us retards make the story, The audience is retarded, they devour story and poop out suggestions, stupid suggestions, suggestions that would make the story boring and pointless. Face it you would be bored to shit if Katia did the LOGICAL thing all the time, what she does IS logical for the purpose of the story, not your own personal gratification and your argument boils down to basically ‘waa waa Kaz didn’t pick my suggestion, fuck dis game’

Dax

For any adventure like this, when there are enough people commenting, most ideas are usually presented, which means that most of the time the author will have exactly the opinion to pick that he would have done anyways without asking anyone. And if a suitable suggestion doesn’t arise, they can always subvert other action and make it futile to achieve his original purpose. It’s the hallmark of a bad GM – one who makes up stuff on the spot to counteract and redirect whatever they players try to do, to realize his vision for what has to happen because he didn’t plan the game to go any other way.

Therefore the game progresses not the way the players want to play it on the whole, but how the author wants it to play out.

It’s treating the players like a comedian would treat a heckler in the audience. Which is exactly your sentiment: “The audience is retarded, they devour story and poop out suggestions, stupid suggestions”.

So why ask them anything at all? Why isn’t this whole thing just a normal webcomic? It certainly plays out as one, so why pretend that it’s not?

Djinnfest

Your logic is…
… inescapable.

Solivagus

Actually my argument boils down to “It doesn’t matter whose suggestion Kaz picks, so we might as well speed things up and grant Kaz greater creative freedom by foregoing the process entirely.”

But thanks for completely misrepresenting me there.

Motherfucker

Invalid, this is a webcomic, not DnD, your suggestions are just that, suggestions. If this was a game it would suck but its not.

Kathi With An I

It’s hilarious how no one notices that this is the exact same comment used back when Katia drank for the second time, back near the ruins.

I was going to point this out but Kathi beat me to it. Ragin gets a hilarity high-five.

Flaise

Oh… I assumed it was the same person. Or a bug in the software.

el-oh-el.

Ryuujin

Bah, I fell for it.. well played successful troll, well played.

/tips hat

Cisan

I was going to point it out too. Copy Troll is copying.

KTB

No wonder it was so familiar

SotiCoto

Obvious copypasta is obvious.

Kato

This isn’t the section where you post something you’d like to happen. You have to go to the forums for that I believe. And if you dont like it then leave. Im enjoying the story tyvm.

MisterD

It was never implied the use inputs had any control on katia. They are only voices from her subconscious. Katia (the author) is always free to listen or not to the “sound advice” from these voices. Nothing have changed, it has always been the case. You might complain about railroad plot, but the author control both the main character and the story. Of course he controls what will happen. You might as well complain that the plot of Harry Potter is railroaded.

zee

Actually the fact that the suggestions are posted on the comic page and interwoven into the plot DOES kind of imply that. If this were just a standard webcomic (which perhaps it should be) you wouldn’t be seeing the same levels of rage from readers who feel they’ve basically been deceived by the amount of input they can have.

I don’t have a real issue with this particular page though, it’s nowhere near the low point that her drinking after escaping the ruins led too. Or at least it doesn’t have to be. We’ll see where it goes from here though…

Ryuujin

ROFL – so familiar. I used to do this shit all the time in oblivion… Troll Fat and… um… Rosemary I think. Made with top level alchemy skillz, spray it on in front of a shop keeper and BAM. They’ll pretty much give you their stock for pennies (and throw money at you when bartering)…

SFLegend

Well at least she still has her lockpick, right?

Ryuujin

She should really consider turning to a life of crime. At least then when she is inevitably relieved of all her possessions once again she has the “tool” to restore her fortune quickly and easily…

…no wait, most houses are full of brooms and clay jugs and calipers and other stuff that is barely worth a single rusty septim and the merchants automatically know what stuff is stolen.

Did you say “calipers”? A life of crime could help Katia get along with at least one fellow Khajiit…

Delta

I laughed
Hard

I noticed katia had very good luck for too long and expected something terrible to happen soon
But this is over any expectations, you surpassed yourself once again sir

Delta9-11

Indeed he did Twin…indeed he did

dude

this is getting fuckin gay katia just get yourself together

The Nerevarine

Aaaah, Telvanni bug musk. I once had to use the stuff to make a slave into a blushing bride, but other than that I never touch the stuff. I’ve found it’s easier to slip a few coin into hands. That said, this woman is a very obvious scam artist. And Katia is under her spell, though obviously if it were a spell then Katia’s sign would absorb it.
Say goodbye to the book and what little things we had. We’ll still have the lockpick though, so I suggest we steal our belongings back (and possibly some gold so as to replace the tome, which was our original purpose).

Robrand

Yup, it sure is Telvanni Bug Musk. And the thing is, Katia isn’t under any spell: Sigrid successfully played the Persuasion minigame and then sprayed a little bit of perfume to increase her personality to such levels that she became irresistible.
I love how most of the things in this comic can be explained with in-game mechanics.

Tokage

If you have ever played a role-playing game, though, you would understand that it is INCREDIBLY poor form to have an NPC use any of those skills against a PC.

If I were a player in this campaign, this would be the point where I would quit and not look back.

Robrand

I don’t know. I think one of the most tense but fun situations I had in an TT RPG was when my character was in a verbal duel with an NPC, where proper roleplaying on both sides would give the relative character bonuses to their persuasion skill. That and I’ve been scammed in a couple of games and didn’t mind it since it presented a challenge to roleplay correctly. Granted, it was because I knew the GM and he never tried to screw the group over, so such situations happened rarely (I think 4-5 times over the same amount of years and a few different campaigns).
So, with the right GM and group, these situations can be fun to play out.
Of course, then there are killer GM that have to beat the players, but a situation like this isn’t really the worst that a GM like that could do.

LP

Aaaand that’s why I always play a bard. At least my charisma is usually high enough to talk people into giving me my shit back. 😛

cake

that kinda makes you a quitter though.

Eldiran

That’s kinda the point though. This story is basically Katia being an NPC (no skills, unimportant to all the characters, etc) in a world of PCs (adventurers, mages, etc).

Zerithos

And somehow, I get the feeling that there isn’t a PC about. Yet…

Daniel

The only PC seems to be that Orc.

patrick

you can not really consider this a rpg though. so those rules do not exactly apply. this just takes place in the world and the game and it’s mechanics. so really, every character can be a player.

Soadreqm

Yeah, that really is the best part. Katia isn’t under any magickal effect. Sigrid JUST SMELLS SO GOOD that Katia simply cannot help but fall in platonic love with her. And since there’s no way to resist liking someone, there’s basically nothing she can do about it. She probably can’t even consciously think that Sigrid is ripping her off, even after the effects wear off. From her point of view, the enigmatic leader of the Mages’ Guild DESERVED to take all her stuff because she was SIMPLY SO AMAZING.

Kinda makes you wish she hadn’t smashed that Fortify Personality potion when she fled from the imp ruin.

Erhannis

Friggin’ Sigrid.

Mind Equals Blown

Frigrid.

catocat9001

Katia: Better check a guide website to see where’s a good place to grind for septims.

Sigrid… you complete and total bitch. You’re robbing Katia of the miniscule, tiny, almost pathetic amount of gold she’s managed to scrape together, some utterly worthless scrap and a book you could’ve bought for 1 gold anyway. You’re no better than bloody Gharug gro-Upp!

One day, some adventurer with a decent speechcraft skill is going to wander in, pick up on the fact that you’re scamming people for all they’re worth and run you through like a filthy hedge wizard who robs people by the side of the road. I won’t be sorry.

Vanguard

I won’t be either, i actually started to like Sigrid, but now i want her to be run through almost as bad as i did Grarug when he robbed her. Evil scamming harlot…

Zerithos

She’s worse. At least Gharug can be chased down by the Legion, while we know Sigrid’s going to be alive even after the siege.

Vanguard

damn…your right…
I wonder what happens to Gharug anyway? Does he get caught after the legion changed their patrol schedule? I hope Asotil delivers to him the “Swift Justice” of the Legion.

Calaban

I was going to say she is probably going to be dragged screaming into Oblivion in about a week, but then I found this:

Haha, the Bloodgrass the Clannfear had was a nice touch. You ought to make him a recurring character.

smetzler

It would be funny if the guy who was eating with them has such great disdain for people that even the bug musk doesn’t work on him. Probably makes his disposition normal. Hopefully Katia realizes what happens, maybe steal her stuff back, work out a deal with that vampire outside to help her steal back her stuff. Katia is pretty much allowed to at this point. Just waltz in there and take whatever she wishes.

Siguard

well at least it is not as bad as the +100 personality/mercantile for 3 sec spell I abused the hell out of in oblivion but this is making me feel ridiculously guilty for scamming the hell out of that one fence in oblivion. well at least you cant really pull this stunt in skyrim.

Echo_Hotel

No in Skyrim you just pick everyone’s pockets for jewels to make totally not stolen rings then snipe everyone’s pets for souls to make totally not stolen enchanted rings and sell them to the nearest trader with any cash left.

Raven

That’s the best thing with Charm though: Katia shouldn’t even realize she’s been scammed.

People never come back over decisions they have made while charmed in Elder Scrolls. The spells have them rationalize their choices away, and they carry on with their life even after the effect dissipates. If they could second guess what happened once the effect ends, every merchant ever would punch in the face every illusionist ever every time they showed back in town.

LP

Yeah. I never really understood why at least the high-class merchants didn’t have some sort of “incense of antipathy” or something burning in the background, given how many people could do charm-effects in TES (all Imperials EVER, wtf). That’s a standard (extremely expensive) item in most of my d&d games.

tronn

YESS! ABOUT TIME WE MAKE THAT CRY!
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

tronn

*cat
also: is a euphemism
also also: I just noticed that Katia had that flower pot stuffed in her tiny purse – such are the wonders of rpg inventories!

Kazerad

I think A is proper here, because of the sound the E makes in this case? I’m not sure; if I recall correctly it varies between British and American English.

Kelibath

Indeed, it’s always “a euphemism”, even in UK English, due to the effect of the consonant-like ‘yu-‘ sound on the ‘e’.

Alebak

Clannfear: Go completely fucking crazy

Patapoulos

Welp, back to square one.

Something interesting, this twist casts a new light over Stephane’s actions and attitude. He knows of Sigrid’s methods and probably disapproves them, so his stern look and cold manners during the dinner might be caused because he knew that this was going to happen, and he doesn’t like it.

akebai

So good to see Eepy is still around, and trying to help Katia out.

dkd

YAY EEPY THE CLANNFEAR! :3>

In the next comic can you animate his tail as well, Kazerad?

akebai

That would be awesome!

Kazerad

I thought about it, but the wagging is more of Katia’s thing. So far the Clannfear has been more catlike.

Dkd

can we have it curl up and purr sometimes then?

Katia’s guardian angel

katia: give her eagerly your amulet and then from excitement, be a hot kitty and burn the place to the ground =^.^=

Harlander

Heheh. Things had been going too well for Katia lately…

R’Becca

What does the scouter say about her speech skill?

Vanguard

IT’S OVER 9000!!!!!!

Sorry, couldn’t resist… XD

LP

Realistically, it’s probably around 150 or 200. Assuming that it’s in the high 90s to start with, throw on some clothes enchanted with charm or personality boost, plus the Telvanni-purse-rape-musk, and maybe a standard personality/merchantile potion, it’s probably pretty high but not a OMGHAX high.

I mean… uh… *ahem* WHAT-NINE-THOUSAND!!!!!

That Guy

If you want to get really technical after around 280.. 290 the calculations start behaving oddly…

…but

… NOT THE POINT

LP

Well, yeah. But I didn’t want to be …
*sunglasses*
THAT GUY.

Zerithos

I just used the console commands to set her Speechcraft skill to 9001. NOW this is legit.

Okay, I’ve had it. But I want to voice my thoughts. You may feel free to ignore them; but in a comic (supposedly) based almost entirely on reader input, I would think even the voice of dissenters would mean something.

The problem I have here is that Katia is a likable character. We want her to succeed. Sure, there are a few people (read: sociopaths) who enjoy reading about the pain of innocents, but there is nothing that says she doesn’t have the ability to be happy. LP above suggests that “Katia is a sadly normal person in a world made for heroes”; but she isn’t even that. With all the negative karma this poor Khajiit is getting, when it snaps back she’s going to become the god damn emperor. But it goes beyond that: this story isn’t even believable. Katia is the chamber pot of the universe’s drunken party. Apparently you think we want to read about that.

Since I don’t think that the majority of your readership are sick bastards who enjoy the pain of others, I’m assuming most of the readership only continue to read because of the hope that occasionally manifests itself, only to be shot down mercilessly in the end. My brother told me I should slog through the misery at the beginning because it gets better, and I thought it did, but apparently, what I thought was Katia finally getting started on the road to being worthy of a story was actually just the longest set up for failure yet.

Have you ever watched a movie where the hero succeeds sheerly through blind, stupid luck—where nothing the hero does is as major a factor in his ultimate success as the fact that the writer wanted him to succeed, so all of the obstacles magically deal with themselves in the most contrived, unlikely way possible? Did you find that this neutered the hero, rendering him less a hero and more the engine of an increasingly fortunate series of events that led to a shamelessly contrived conclusion? Has this ever ruined a movie for you? Your comic is the opposite of that. Fate (read: a sadistic author) conspires to torture Katia, for our reading displeasure. And yet we read on in the hopes that at some point, fate will be kind and give her success; and we know it must be fate that does so, because despite having the ability to do so, she is unable even to begin to live a normal life.

This is supposed to be a dark comedy, but it isn’t funny, so much as constantly frustrating. The funny moments are when things are getting better, picking up, and Katia is making progress. The rest is sad and depressing. I have never in my life read anything that tries so hard to keep you reading by promising so much, only to hurt you by hurting the main character. At least in Harry Potter, the titular character (whom Rowling seems to hate as much as you hate Katia, considering how many of his own personal loved ones are killed in the course of the story vs. those of everyone else) remains victorious in the end of every book. Katia just suffers and suffers and suffers.

The worst part is that you utilize some very interesting storytelling techniques that are ultimately ruined by the pointlessly sadistic story you’re using them to tell. Your ability to tell stories is being undermined by the awful story you’re choosing to tell. It’s as though some brilliant painter invented a new and astonishing way to capture vivid, unfathomable color on a canvas, and used that newfound ability to create painting after painting of human feces.

With the destruction of Kvatch looming, I grow more and more convinced that Katia will not have become a decent wizard (or a decent anything, really) in time to help, or contribute, or even be a factor in that event; I doubt she will have any kind of positive involvement at all. If anything, it seems most likely that she will probably be the candle that sets Kvatch alight, and then die horribly in the end. Having predicted the ending thusly, and not being in the mood to suffer further at your hands, I bid your comic adieu. Were it already complete, I might be tempted to wait it out, but I’ve already invested months in this comic; more seems masochistic.

Aleph

Sadly, I feel much the same way. The art is engaging, and the characters have plenty of charm, but the ongoing cruelty is just depressing.

Still, this situation isn’t resolved yet. I’m withholding judgment to see how it plays out. You can’t have tension without the threat of possible Really Bad Things…

Celly

I’m in the same boat. I probably won’t stop reading the comic over it at this point, but if Sigrid takes EVERYTHING… Well, I’d be rather upset and probably would lose interest not too long after.

Like someone else commented, I hope Sigrid was just checking if she was being stingy or actually impoverished, and will leave her belongings alone upon counting how pathetic a fortune Katia has gathered. Have a heart lady. D:

If she takes just her money, that’d be a fair compromise, I guess? 🙁 She REALLY needs that amulet to not accidentally start fires—oh jeez that’s probably how Kvatch is going to go isn’t it.

FancySanta

That would be great, wouldn’t it? And its even set up a bit!

Mythic Dawn loitering outside of town.

Building full of fireworks.

Katia getting a recharge to her magicka thanks to the alchemical dinner.

And possibly about to lose the amulet that keeps her from starting fires.

Katia accidentally burning down Kvatch would be hilarious.

WinteR

The survivors of Kvatch said that a huge fire breathing monster, presumably a daedroth, came through the Great Gate and set the town on fire. The destruction of Kvatch won’t happen for at most, a week, and at least 4 or 5 days. By then she’ll have gone back with Asotil or woken up in Quill-Weave’s bed again. There is no way Katia will be responsible for the start of the Oblivion Crisis, one of the single most destructive and terrible events in the history of Tamriel, the beginning of a new era. (oh crap plz don’t let have jinxed that)
On a side note, that would be hilarious.
On another side note, I honestly think that the best way to end this webcomic(a long long time from now, preferably) would be with Katia’s death(not a disgraceful or bad luck death, but normal enough, with plenty of sentimentality and a feeling of final accomplishment) somehow triggering the Champion’s arrival in jail or the start of the Oblivion Crisis, thereby effectively ending the “Prequel” and transfering to the game that we all know and love. Of course, don’t get any ideas Kaz, we like it how it is now. No sudden endings please.
On another side note, DANGIT Kazerad! I definitely did not see that coming.

The author strikes me as someone who feels too emo about his life and, rather than man up and realize he’s in a first world country with real opportunities, decides to make a pity party comic. This has never been about what the readers want, just what the author feels like venting out and acting up over.

ExOttoyuhr

Sounds plausible. If only Katia weren’t so danged cute…

Beano Curufinwe

Reading the author’s comments, I disagree. He seems very professional, and the subtitle is Making a Cat Cry, after all.

But man, I totally feel the same way. This turn of events has made me (just a little) angry and suspicious of Kazerad, and made me less involved with the characters.

Tokage

Hear, hear.

Bonzohazard

Heh, dude, you’re not fooling anyone… you’ll just read it in secret now, huddling in your closet with a smartphone! Yeah, it’s going to be one big clutter-f@!# of events that will inevitably end in Katia burning down Kvatch or being responsible for the oblivion gates or whatever, but it’s fascinating and you know it! You’ll follow it for months more, admittedly or not, and enjoy it as much as everyone else.

KTB

I believe that the proper term is Cluster-f&*#.

Snaffle

To be fair, Harry Potter is the main character and so should be the main shooting target of the bad guys. If he didnt care about those who died, why would the reader?

Graknorke

I hate to be that guy, but in all fiction things only happen because the author wants them to. Otherwise they wouldn’t write it. Actually, forget what I said earlier. I love being this guy.

SolitareLee

Actually, I agree with this. I kept reading past all the other bullshit cause everyone was just like “don’t worry it gets better”! But…. uh… it hasn’t. It did for awhile and then it got worse again. This is the stupidest fucking thing, because it COULD have been really good if the author knew how to write a story other than “repeatedly torturing someone we’re supposed to love.”

passive observer

And yet by reading it we give kaz exactly what he/she is looking for undivided attention and the zombified reader who continually checks back for updates that for whatever reason are slow and painfull to read as long as there are people who give into this c*** kaz will be able to continually disreguard reader input to his/her hearts content :/ here comes the s*** storm so id get an umbrela before you catch the “rain drops” in your mouth so to speak

Eldiran

I imagine the story probably seems exceptionally harsh because of how slow it goes (not saying Kazerad is slow, it’s just the nature of reading something online as it is created, rather than reading a finished work). Who’s to say things don’t end well at the end of the “book”? We just have to wait and see. (That said, if the story actually doesn’t end well, then the whole story was rather pointless.)

Bove

I think you are missing the point, both you and others with this opinion. Yes, you want Katia to succeed, and yes, it is because she was written in a way the makes you sympathize with her character. Readers do have as much control over the story as the author, but that does not mean that yearning for catharsis will actually bring about catharsis. Yes you have input, but so does the author.

You keep/kept reassuring yourself that it would “get better.” Why does it have to? The majority of fictional works that cause you to sympathize deeply with the protagonist eventually have a more or less happy/alright ending. It brings you fulfillment and peace. This is what you have come to accept. This is not required, nor is it sadistic otherwise.

This is the way the story is evolving and if Katia’s fate is terrible in the beginning or just terrible overall, who are you to say the story is sadistic or hindered by this fact? Have you considered that this type of plot is desired by the author, not because of some sick pleasure but because it is actually a PART of his art style? Didn’t he tell you in the beginning this would not be a happy tale?

I personally believe that this depressing sequences with small bouts of glimmering hope are purposeful. They keep the reader guessing to whether this is the storyline and Katia is doomed to suffer this fate forever, or maybe that even though Katia has had a hard life and will still have a hard life that eventually, in the end, she will find that fate has delivered to her the life and purpose she has hoped for her entire life. The story, in my opinion, is a metaphor for life. Life is harder than one expects in the beginning. One does have periods of hope but also periods of depression. Life leaves one wondering if this is all life has to offer, or if there is something more (a purpose, a destiny, a place, a home, etc).

I love this story and my heart sways with Katia through hope and sadness. I may be seeing design where it is not, but I believe that under this story is a “plot”/ideal that is truly a work of art. I may not change your opinion, but I’d be very grateful if you would consider mine.

Thank you, Kaz, for this story. I have found it highly amusing. 🙂

ktb

Amen

Guvernor

Spot on.

This comic is at its MOST entertaining when Katia gets knocked down.

Why? Because then she gets back up again. That’s the most heartening thing in the world.

Rabek

So… does no one realize this is called Prequel?

I’ve been running under the assumption that this whole story is a setup for why a random Kajiit ends up in jail without knowing how she got there, while also being remarkably underskilled compared to everyone else in the world.

I’m pretty sure she’s going to keep bumbling until she ends up in jail in the Imperial city and meets the Emperor just before he gets assassinated.

It happens in the first twenty minutes of the game. It’s not a spoiler.

tronn

Please don’t use ‘we’ when you meant to write ‘I’.
Kaz creates this comic for his own amusement. You should stop reading it if you don’t enjoy it.
That’s all there is to it.

Rowling said she actually cried when killing a certain character in book 5. She gives every impression of loving the characters she writes. Heck, this is a series that starts only hours after the main character’s parents are brutally murdered by wizard Hitler.

Alex

Authors need to love all their characters, good and bad. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love.

Wytsfs

I’d like to point out that this was quite probably our fault. We already knew Sigrid was shady, but people weren’t willing to give up anything at all. We could have spared 10 gold and plead poverty. Instead we tried to cut and run. That made Sigrid think her normal manipulations were ineffective on us, so she upped the ante.

Just like Gro-Upp wouldn’t be immune to fire right now if people hadn’t pushed for a ring of firewalking with a fucking DIAMOND attached instead of a welkynd stone and some mana restore potions which really would have been much more useful to Katia.

And that necromancer would still be alive if people would have just shut up and let Gro-Upp leave with his spoils instead of trying to pump him for info we could meta use when the perspective shifted back to Katia.

Issarlk

In my oppinion the whole point of the comic is to feel sorry for Katia and wanting to comfort this stupidly huggable character! So of course bad things keep happening to her.

Bonzohazard

Hell yeah, let’s see some real pussy tears!! Send her back to reject level 1…. maybe have her drink away her depression when she realizes all her stuff is gone and wake up naked in bed next to Eepy… with a zombie cleaning the place up. Oh, and just in case she catches an STD, make sure you have her lick Eepy’s foot before she bails in a flurry of tears and weeping.

l.e.

Sure are a lot of people getting worked up over one panel at the end of a page.

Ryuujin

Imagine if he’d posted this last week – April 1st. And recited the same promise he did then that he doesn’t do April fools jokes… how many people’d be raging right now at the revelation he was true to his word :p

ClancyDamon

In a weird way, I’m almost more hurt that Katia is allergic to Moon Sugar. What kind of Khajiit is allergic to Moon Sugar!? How could that even be possible?

lp

Skoomacat is fickle and cruel.

MyMindAsplode

I woke up for this? For shame Kaz, for shame. Katia: migrate to a new comic where nice things happen.

Zerithos

No, the Space-Time Continuum has been fucked with enough, methinks, than to have two Katia Managans about.

Qw@s

I knew something bad happens! I hope that Asotil will cut Sigrid’s head off or Dark Brotherhood will visit her.

PrivateerBlack

…Seriously? Telvanni Bug Musk? This is just low and excessive at this point.

The Orc Highwayman was bad, but acceptable. Alcoholism is a horrible thing and makes people do horrible things.
The Ayleid ruin collapsing, I can understand. The place was a wreck waiting to implode.
The slaughterfish in the well wasn’t fun, but at least Nah was nice enough to clean and bandage her wounds for her.

This? No! I think that this latest act of horrid karma is deliberately cruel on the author’s part. Katia is a good character and is trying to get things to go right. Robbing her of all her things in one fell swoop like this is a horrible thing to do, especially after all that she’s been through.

Katia: Suddenly use your woman’s intuition and realize your being manipulated. Snap out of it and GTFO! WITH YOUR STUFF!

MisterD

Horrid karma? EVERYONE Katia encoundered talked weirdly or badly from the Kvach mages guild. Heck, even the archmage don’t even wnat to talk about it. And what does Katia do? Walk right into the obvious trap. And don’t give me the railroad plot speech. Nobody was screaming for her to run away until she Sigrid mentioned donations. This is perhaps the only time where bad thing happening could have been obviously and easily sidestepped. I guess curiosity killed the cat once again.

Weomur

Well, looking on the bright side!- at least Sigrid knows that Katia was telling the truth about not really having much money. Maybe she’ll decide that taking her stuff isn’t worth the trouble and will just ask her to do some errands anyway.

…Or not. Who knows. (Except maybe Kaz.)

Volchek

“Wow. I thought you were just being stingy, but you really ARE poor.”

Vanguard

damn it! just when things had started to go somewhat smoothly…
i figured the whole event that happened at the well would have been enough of a downfall for Katia.

Volchek

…
*facepalm*
Damn Telvanni Bug Musk…

Woolytop

you guys know Sigrid is an actual NPC in oblivion, right? That you can like, talk to, and trade with, and CUT?

Kathi With An I

And kill and reload and kill and reload and kill and reload…

Seriously, when I first read this page I booted up Oblivion and spent ten minutes thinking of new and inventive ways to kill Sigrid.

About half of them involve poisons.

Dr. Curiosity

I vote for a good wabbajacking.

CreepyCanine

I hope she didn’t take of her amulet. If not.. uh oh.

Alec

lol, people are pissed. Which is blatently silly.
Do you know how boring this comic would get if katia’s life became super easy? If Kaz wanted, she could give katia Umbra and enchanted Ebony armor that would perma-summon atronachs.
Besides, katia made good choices. This is a near unavoidable situation.
Now, lets get our stuff back.
“Katia, use every last remaining bit of your will to take off your amulet.”

Tokage

You can be “not super easy”, or not give her Umbra and ebony armors, without going to this sort of an excess, and you know it.

Rufusthehobo

Quick someone make a cat joke! Sigrid has Katia’s amulet! Burn the place to the ground! Katia can snap out of it scoop up her stuff and leave with the Dino!

Zerithos

Check the previous comments :P. That might not end well… I’m sure the Mythic Dawn’d be very happy to take advantage of one Khajiit’s accident.

Ineverus

Stephane left the room before it happened, to avoid getting chamred himself I suppose. Must be experienced with this kind of stuff. Maybe that’s why he’s so depressed, he’s been watching young, promising mages get charm-robbed many times before. Do I smell a possible ally?

anomalon

3 steps forward, 4 steps back.

when i write a story, i begin with the end in mind.

is this your plan to move into syndication, kaz? promote weekly ‘woe is me’ experiences with no forseeable end ever, like rex morgan with more abuse?

Kazera/d/, it’s time for you to a/d/mit you have a fetish for ba/d/ en/d/.

an/d/ then move in with ICS for the risque sitcom I will be filming.

Illidan

When will a white knight enter this room yelling “STOP RIGHT THERE YOU CRIMINAL SCUM!” ?

Kreetn

I agree, Telvanni bug musk is illegal in the provinces of Cyrodil. also oblivion guards are FUCKING PSYCHIC HIVEMIND ROBOTS.
a CRIME has OCCURRED
UNIT 24601 ACTIVATING, INITIATING PURSUIT

LP

You know, you have a point there.

Then again, I was shocked the day I discovered in Oblivion that having a relationship of 90+ with guards meant they’d hunt you down and then apologize for wasting your time when you commit a crime. Sigrid is probably safe.

Spatzist

Only for crimes under 100 gold.

David Argall

Our white knight is also charmed by Sigrid and will only arrest Katia for giving Sigrid other people’s money [which Sigrid gets to keep]

Dusty

*pssssst* Katia… I think she might be royalty… because she looks kinda regal doesn’t she?
Just saying…

Kreetn

hey Kazerad, you prolly already answered this, but why don’t you just use the comments here as the suggestion box?

Kazerad

Couple reasons; part of it is to curb the amount of commands with an arbitrary entry barrier (e.g. only people who really care will bother registering for a forum), part of it is to make votes and stuff harder to cheat, and part of it is to keep the commands mostly separate from the discussion. I’ve written some longer things on it elsewhere; I’ll dig them up and copy paste here if there’s enough demand.

Two things. One, 100 persuasion. The Musk probably costs like two septims, especially if she were in the Telvanni faction… Two, who says that she used ALL the musk? For all we know the story might be modded!
But that would be a bit odd. Although if Shivan Snow (goooooo Midas Magic!) shows up then I WILL laugh.

Z

I really don’t get all these hateful comments talking bad about Kaz. To be surprised that something bad happens at this point is naive to a point of ridiculousness, and to call those who stick around or Kaz himself sociopaths is just close-minded childishness. Everyone has different tastes and people like different things.

-and a story where everything bad happens to the main character isn’t “Bad storytelling,” or at least, that would mean most all my professors in college who had me read Candide were wrong. Candide makes this look like a beautiful paradise world. There’s a whole series of “Canon Literature” where horrible horrible things continue to happen to characters we like. It’s just that nowadays most shows focus on being “Feel-good” stories so it makes things like this stand out.

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall in an open sewer hole and die.”

I for one can’t wait to see what happens next. This cathartic, humorously cruel adventure is one of the few comics I read online anymore. If Kaz does read these comments I say bravo and keep up the -good- work. Clearly this isn’t for everyone, but there’s clearly an audience that adores your work at the same time.

Kreetn

>“Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall in an open sewer hole and die.”

maybe that’s why some fans are up in arms? they’re still under the impression this is a user-driven collaborative exercise (ha!) and not a story by an author who has an end in mind where the readers get to pick the color of the princess’ dress.

they feel invested in katia, so when she cuts her finger or gets mugged, they feel robbed, no?

Z

If they own such overwhelming powers of empathy, I envy them. They could read a story where everything good happens and feel everlasting bliss.

-and the argument that Kaz is overstepping his bounds doesn’t fit with me. There’s a giant library of options available for people who want to control stories – choose your own adventure books; writing a story of their own; using their imaginations and being content.

This comic has a certain level of user interaction and at this point the amount should be clear. It’s -clearly- more than “color of [a] dress.” -but that the author has the authority to affect the character in ways beyond what the masses suggest is – in my opinion – a good thing. I LIKE not getting everything I want. I LIKE being challenged.

I fully get that others don’t or that they feel they should have more power, but there are other options than this one webcomic and to stick around only to complain and cast disparaging remarks on those who are enjoying themselves feels a giant waste to me. Of course, I’m a vicious hypocrite by sticking around to defend people who don’t need defending.

Bove

I tried to convey similar feelings in a comment above. However, I could never have said it better than you. I agree completely. You shouldn’t feel like a hypocrite. Kaz doesn’t need defending and you probably won’t change these people’s minds. Yet, speaking up with your opinion when so many others have voiced the opposite, I think, is necessary and required. You need to, at least, show Kaz that you along with many others love the comic the way it is, especially in the face of so many dissenters.

WinteR

Just thought I’d point out; many of these “dissenters” realize this. They don’t feel entitled, they just are finished with what they view as a trash webcomic that doesn’t entertain them. They decide they might as well voice their final opinion and leave.
But I agree with Z and Bove, there’s no reason not to give back our own reasoning.

Solivagus

Really? Please explain to me how there’s any level of significant interaction going on here. Can you point out any single comment in the entire history of this comic that made you feel like it had more than a superficial effect, and didn’t just go in the direction Kaz had most likely already planned for it to go?

There’s about as much challenge here as watching a movie and yelling what we think the characters should do at the screen.

And you neglect to consider that there are those of us who read/participate in the commands thread and recognize the discrepancies between what goes on there and here. Admittedly, it’s so chaotic in there that it’s practically impossible to keep up with everything, but there were a lot of people advising Katia to be wary of Sigrid throughout, and many screaming “scam!” the moment Sigrid mentioned donations – enough that I don’t see how you can honestly claim that a “majority trusted Sigrid right up until the very end.” There was no evident majority, only evidence that you tend to cherrypick the comments that further the specific story you want to portray. That’s okay, as long as you can admit to it and let those of us who had hoped to actually have some sort of influence know that we’re simply wasting our time in the commands thread. I’d continue reading anyways.

Note, however, that I probably wouldn’t be saying any of this now had we not just come from the well episode. It certainly seemed like a lot of time was spent on suggestions that you never had any intention of allowing to further the story, and in the end we were forced to go the only route you planned on from the beginning. That was the real low point of the comic for me.

I had already seen it the first time around and taken a cursory glance recently. Still, like I said before, the thread is hard to keep up with. I didn’t count the exact numbers, and if you kept better track and truly feel Katia’s subconscious was accurately represented, okay then.

At any rate, I think I will find more enjoyment just reading the comic from now on.

kotekzot

People need to learn to deal with the fact that not everything will happen they way they want it to. The author has no obligation to let other people run his story. My experience is enhanced by the inclusion of these commands, and if they add some spice to the story that is being told, great, but don’t expect to write somebody else’s story. You have fingers to type with to, if it’s not your cup of tea you should bally well make your own.

Solivagus

Wow, okay. I want this to be over at this point, but come on. I never said anything remotely close to “everything should happen the way I want it to” or insinuated that anyone other than Kaz should run the story. My criticism has solely concerned the possibility of ALL comments not making ANY discernible difference whatsoever, and if that is the case, why even have them? If anything, my suggestion has been that things would probably be better if Kaz would simply take full control and leave the command process out of it.

I mean really, what is it about the internet that tends to lead people to straw man so much?

ExOttoyuhr

I’d go further than agreeing with that, and say that anyone whose instinctive empathy is so limited that he can quote “Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall in an open sewer hole and die,” and mean it, has something wrong in the head.

Z

The quote is meant to be comedic; I know people on the internet are crazy but give a random stranger a little more credit than to be that psychotic.

-and actually, my ‘instinctive’ empathy is usually quite high, but when there it’s CLEAR bad things are going to happen I don’t delude myself. Putting your emotions into Katia and expecting something bad to NOT happen is like going to watch The Human Centipede and falling in love with the main characters, then getting mad when they become…well…the human freaking centipede. Having CONTROL over your empathy does not equal being without empathy.

Incidentally: I DO have something “wrong in the head” but I don’t think “not getting emotionally overwhelmed with a fictional character’s plight” is something I should really seek therapy about.

-and please note: I’m not saying people SHOULDN’T empathize with Katia if that’s what they like – what I’m opposing is the torrent of people who are polarizing Kaz and his fans as either artistically sterile or uncaring sadists. For someone who’s working to make art for people, Kaz is getting a ridiculous amount of hatred spewed at him; I was simply aiming to be a voice of praise amidst the deluge of complaints.

Zerithos

Agreed. There ARE, in fact, other kinds of comedy within the story- look at the flippin’ unicorn.
Anyway, the story really isn’t that bad. Really, people, stop attacking a web(comic?) that is just different than the somewhat unrealistic and possibly life ruining (in overdoses) stories like Harry Potter, Hunger Games (although that is pretty evil sometimes) and actually the Elder Scrolls series itself. Understand that Katia isn’t a PC, and is really set to pretty much fade into the background. I mean seriously, Prequel Adventures? Before the main Oblivion event?

And really, I don’t agree with it either. I can realize that there IS a moral here, but Kazerad decided to do a bunch of things that piss off or even infuriate the readers to show it. And that, I think, is the problem. This isn’t necessary in this amount.

I’m just going to ignore your opinion now. I find that people who use the term close-minded are unlikely to consider that whatever they’re holding forth on might actually be subjective. You are essentially telling people to stop not-liking what you like.

Not to mention your straw man about people wanting only good things to happen to characters. If Pinkie Pie got, oh, I dunno, mugged and beaten up in the next episode of My Little Pony, people would be pissed. There’s a difference between not wanting something excessively bad to happen to a character and not wanting anything bad to happen at all. You’re conflating the two.

Z

“I’m just going to ignore your opinion now.” Really? Shame. Well I’ll still consider yours – as is evident by me sticking around to reply.

A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position.[1] To “attack a straw man” is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the “straw man”), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.[1][2] [Taken from Wikipedia]

You say I created a straw man argument in my claims. I will admit I made an over generalization. Your bit about Pinkie-Pie is quite fair and I SHOULD have been more specific. -but I did in fact address the central problem, flawed as that address may be. If you care: I do realize the difference quite well, I just didn’t express them in that post because this webseries clearly deals in extremes.

I bring up what a Straw Man argument IS because you seem to have done the exact idea to me in the first half of your reply. “You are essentially telling people to stop not-liking what you like” is what you said to me, and I’ve since combed over my original post a few times over and cannot find any part that would even suggest I felt as such.

I have no problem at all with people who don’t like this comic. I don’t have a single friend who DOES like this comic. In my original post I thought I made it clear that I respect that different people have different tastes and opinions and that’s NOT a bad thing! Not sure where along the line that was lost to you so thoroughly.

What I was saying was close-minded is the personal attacks that Kaz and his fans have been receiving FOR liking what they like. These people are seeing something THEY don’t like and are their arguments are not “I do not like this” but “You are a bad person, so I’m in the right for not liking this.”

Unless…by “You are essentially telling people to stop not-liking what you like,” you were referring to me liking “NOT personally attacking people” and I was saying people should stop not-liking that.
In that case you’re spot on. Otherwise, I’m just confused as to how my basic points became so twisted to you.

Mojohobo

Ah, Telvanni Bug Musk.

b4betty

Halfway through reading this issue I was thinking to myself how, its been a while since something weird has happened apart from the clannfear running around and this dinner is going quite well for Katia, then BOW, Kazerad comes with a mean right hook to the face! In all honesty I really enjoyed this issue and I am glad we all got something to be upset about, yes this isn’t the happiest of occasions and we all need to vent our frustrations, but as foolish optimist that I am, I am going to keep cheering for Katia, my only concern is that she starts blaming herself over this after this whole thing is done.

Katia! You were trying to improve yourself and you took a risk and no one can blame you for it and you shouldn’t blame your self either, you fell prey to an evil woman who has nothing better to do then to rob a destitute and hopeful mage blind, keep your chin up you will get through this!

Europa

Oh boy, this is going to end well.

smetzler

Ignore the haters, Kaz. I loved this new twist. The people whining really have some stupid complaints here. “It’s supposed to be a dark comedy!” A dark comedy? With the horror dreams she has of kings? Or the fact that she stands around being genuinely depressed by her failures? If that makes them chuckle, I don’t want to know what makes them guffaw.
Besides, the subtitle of the comic says it all right there. Katia is going to go through rough times. It’s more encouraging to see a character fight on despite all the troubles and to work through the doubt. If blood on the floor, months of people hating to even talk about the guild, lack of any mages at all except one alchemist in a guild hall, and an overly welcoming attitude that loves to make excuses doesn’t clue people in that something bad is going to happen then they can leave. Which they won’t. And when something bad is going to happen it has to be bad. Not no, “Katia scraped her paw. Lick it away.”. It’s going to suck. And Katia is going to rise again.

Guy Smiley

That’s it, I’m out.

I’ll probably still follow the comic for a few more comics just to see the outcome but honestly, only a fool would give a character any emotional attachment at this point and without that, what’s the point of reading a story? What’s the point of reading this story where reader attachment is the point of reader commands? Time and again I’d grow fond of a character only to have them betray, self destruct, die, or a combination of the three. At this point I don’t care enough about the characters to even participate.

This is actually fairly tame compared to what happened to Katia before. for one, she will still have clothes afterwards, meaning she won’t have to find a way to bum some off of someone else after this is said and done. two she learned a few very important things about alchemy and magic in general during this dinner, the alchemy part will be very important since she was given a hint on what restores magicka. all in all she probably is going to lose a grand total of ~30 septems, a flowerpot, and maaaaaayyyybeeeee the package but i already put in a command that might save that. as far as falling goes this ain’t that far for her and totally recoverable.

Xander

I bet everything included her amulet. QUICK! CAT P(aw)NS!

Liquidinfirmity

Took me an hour of re-reading, But I finally get it…
Clever bastard. XD

Wait… if she also took off her necklace, that means cat puns will start a fire.

Which will burn down the guild.

Which will burn down Kvatch.

Mr.Mister

That *would* make sense, except for the fact that Kvatch was destroyed by Daedra, and not a stupid cat pun.

Expresate

There is a Daedra in the room. People in TES are afraid of Daedra. They will blame Eepy.

dkd

Well, in the game they say that the daedra burnt down the city using the siege crawler, which broke down the walls and then started shooting flames at everything, but in the game the walls were intact.

So yes- katia confirmed for burner of Kvatch.

WinteR

they said a great beast came over the walls and breathed fire on everything. Not the siege crawler. Most likely a daedroth, since at the time, for a low level character who has so far fought nothing bigger than a wolf, that is huge.

Zerithos

Nope, the siege crawler did appear at Kvatch. Martin, at the point where he explains the Great Sigil Stone, says that he’s seen the power of the Daedric Siege Crawler first hand.

Mr.Mister

Remember when Kaz said that bad things have to happen to make good things seem less cheesy?
Well, it works both ways. Because too much good things are too convenient to make the reader feel a sense of hope, and too much bad things are too predictable to be dramatic.
I don’t feel like i really mean this, but if Kaz pulls something like this again, i’ll stop reading.

Ellert

Oh come on now, stop nagging Kazerad. I like where this is going and I think you are all forgetting that she is making progress despite the fact that she seems to go back to being poor again and again. She has learned some new skills, made some new friends (or well, at least met some new people to talk to) and she has learned some magic, and two spells at that! No one can take her magic away from her, so she will never be right back to the starting point. In time she will be able to take care of herself.

somedude

“Yet below the surface, there was something dark and manipulative, sad yet hopeful.”
“DARK AND MANIPULATIVE”

Man, shit was even ITALICIZED

Asmodeus42

…wait… you mean you DIDN’T see this coming?

…ok addmittedly Katia had just gotten to kavatch when i found this and i have since read the archives… but STILL!

satansatansatan

…

DAMN YOU KAZ

Derpinstein

Its ok, there is always a way to fix everything. Heading to the board to post this command right here

Katia. When the musk charm wears off realize you’ve been had again, and that you are once again at square 1. Swallow your pride and have the courage to realize that no matter how hard you try its never going to work in your favor. You are only a doormat for those who are cruel, and a let down for those who put faith in you. Do the right thing and end your life, your existence is pathetic and at least if you’re dead you can’t let anyone else down, or be taken advantage of anymore.

Raithe

Why are you so right?

Vins

…

BWAAAAAHHHH!!! D,X

… not fair, why?? ;n;

Tennae

Perhaps Sigrid will realize just how sad katia really is after looking at that book and let her off easy…

8bitplaya

I never imagined I’d be saying this… about 2 comics ago I noticed that messages being posted here were getting out of hand, people bashing Kaz for not updating, as if this comic were a fast food drive through and they weren’t getting to stuff their faces with food they PAID for fast enough… I’m used to reading shit posts like this on game forums where people whine like newborn kittens to the Gods about whatever moronic thought drifts through their brain… but once again… at least blizzard was getting paid…

Kaz is creating this comic for his own reasons, and we are mere spectators, guests in his house as it were… Do you people enter the home of a host and shit on their couch? That is what is happening here.

There is a growing portion of readership that are faggots. Rude, selfish, faggots.

So listen up faggots

1. You are not paying Kaz to do this comic so stfu
2. Kas was not put on this earth to make this comic for you, so stfu
3. If you don’t like the story he is telling, or the way he is telling it, go make your own, and stfu

The saddest part of this comic isn’t Katia’s struggle to succeed, it’s the lack of appreciation some of these people are demonstrating.

Derpinstein

Hows that soapbox you’re on. Weather good up there?

Bove

Hey. He’s right to call people out on this. He isn’t being condescending about it. He’s telling it like it is. Why put him down when he makes a perfectly valid and totally sound point?

Stengah

I’d say he was condescending when he called people he disagreed with homophobic slurs and told them to shut the fuck up like they’re not allowed to have their own opinions on what would make a “better” story for Katia.
Personally I think the story’s great so far, and that the fact that so many are so upset by Katia’s bad luck is a testament to the character Kaz has made for us. I think people forget that not every story has to have a happy ending, and that a story where the protagonist faces no adversity would be pretty uninteresting. They also seem to be forgetting that the suggestions people make are just that: suggestions. Kaz is free to heed or ignore them depending on whether or not he thinks they fit into whatever story he has planned. Besides, he’s nowhere close to being as mean to his Katia as Stephen Donaldson is to his characters.

WinteR

Oh, I love the internet. And you, Mr. Stengah, is it condescending to speak passionately, perhaps even obscenely? Well, yes it is, but it is not necessary to call them out on it. Listen to the message, not the manner.

ExOttoyuhr

I’m going to second Stengah on this: You lost me at “f—–s”. And even before then, well, who do you think you are, a drill sergeant in a self-righteous army that can’t win a war without strategic bombing and a 6:1 manufacturing advantage?

NoriMori

Oh my fucking God. I am so pissed at Sigrid now.

And the only reason I’m not saying “fuck this” and abandoning this comic like some on here, is because it seems like everytime Katia falls down, she bounces back better than the last time, and each time she falls, she falls a little less hard than the last time. I’m convinced that either this isn’t going to turn out as bad as it could (Tennae’s idea gives me hope), or that if it does, she’s going to recover faster and better than before.

And because I’m convinced that at the end of all this is a happy ending.

R.Yin

Basically just like in real life. We suffer a hit, and then if we REALLY have the drive to make something better for outsells, we get back up and do better fro the little spot we made so we never hit rock bottom again. After all, how many times on the news have you heard that someone killed themselves because life got to hard. Yet here our protagonist stands. It can’t be all up’s there has to be downs to make the up’s even better and the down make you want to push for those up’s again.

Eventually falls become less and less hard, until falling is more like a trip, a moment pause before walking again.

I don’t get the rage here. I feel that some of the stuff is harsh, but I suppose because I’m likely older then many of the readership here, or not who can say, but toughed through hardships I understand this sort of flow. Life’s not fair, sometimes you are cheated, but you have to just buckle down and move on.

I sometimes think that people are far to entitled now-a-days with stories. I mean the Mass Effect thing is a really good example of that. I’m seeing the same thing here. Only the story is not even over yet.

NoriMori

Exactly. For the life of me I cannot understand why people keep complaining about the story “going back to square one” or “resetting” or “treading over the same territory over and over” when it’s not even finished yet. If the most recent failure were the ending? Then I could understand the complaints. I’d be among the loudest complainers. But has the story ended yet? No. No it has not. Just because Katia keeps failing doesn’t invalidate all the stuff in between, or all the stuff that could come after. People are acting as if Katia’s most recent failure, having fulfilled the “Rule of Three”, is the end — as if it absolutely confirms that the story’s current pattern will remain the exact same all the way to the very end, or that the ending will land on “failure” instead of “success”. They call Kazerad a sadist for doing these horrible things to Katia. But hang on — is he still a sadist if the story eventually ends with Katia being happy and having a good hold on her life? Can these people see the future? Unless they can, they have no basis to be calling Kazerad a sadist, or to be complaining about the repeated failures. I like the repeated failures. I am ever more curious each time to see how Katia salvages the situation — which she always does (a fact detractors seem to ignore, preferring to fixate on the repeated failures rather than the repeated successes), and to see what crazy new adventure she has next. Yes, the pattern so far is success-failure, but there’s still success in there. It’s still part of the pattern. Why do people ignore this?

WinteR

Except the higher you bounce, the more you fall. But she’ll keep gaining knowledge(and magic) so she can keep bouncing higher, hopefully.

Phaelhaus

DAMNIT! Uuuuuuuuuuuugh Katia, please please please have her look through your things and not want anything.
Its been too long since you had any good luck in this town. First the thing with the well, now this… no wonder everyone loves this wench, she’s a freaking highway robber with Love Potion Number 9 in her back pocket.

Damnit… Please let something go right for once? Im feeling WAY too attached to Kat at this point. LoLs.

CompletelyComatose

Not to be a Bother Or be off topic But Is your Name In reference To A Series That was Done By Graham From Loading ready Run?

Twobitz

People getting mad about this need to go back and read this again, heh.

Kato

Hehe She’s taking skooma.

Kato

never mind. I just saw that its perfume.
I thought she was lighting a skooma pipe or something hehe.

This seems really relevant here. Kaz, I wouldn’t worry about cranking out updates on a regular basis if the story suffers for it. Stories are written (and drawn and animated) in their own time.

Vins

Well, since Sigrid is at it may she also steal Katia’s self-respect by peeking into that vandalized book. Eh…

… Really, I’m just speechless. <:I

a sad panda

I can’t take much mor disapointment right now please don’t let her get mugged 1.)halo 4 is gonna change halo colmpletly 2.)mass effect 3s ending made me rage, and now katia is getting mugged by some blonde digglet 🙁 come on man dont let this happen prequels all I got left lol

Seth

sad panda, saints row the third. lol

Asmodeus42

…digglet?

Pogiforce

Halo sucks anyway, changing it might be a good thing.

Zerithos

I respect and also disagree with your opinion.
However…
Halo IS going to complete shit. The games just get worse (except Anniv).

Adoring Fan

You need to be congratulated for expressing a popular opinion in answer to an unpopular one. Backrub, perhaps?

DD

There’s an alchohol base in perfume isnt there?

Last panel just made me think of it being a ‘waking up in bed next to’ scene.

EveryZig

The perfume is a potion (presumably of fortify personality).

Subconcious Badger

I hope Sigrid dies in a fire…which given the fate of Kvatch, is pretty likely…but then again she’ll probably escape unschathed only to scam Katia all over again at some point….

I wish that for once Katia would get a break, had her finish her job for Quill-Weave at least before things went sour for her again, but no, she’s not even given that tiny little bit of kindness it seems… Unless the next couple of pages show otherwise.

I figured this comic would probably be just a series of unfortunate events since Katia is no hero, but even normal people have their moment to shine and their day, so if the comic just keeps going this way of showing her a glimmer of hope and then always have the rug yanked from under her it would become very repetitive and predictable. I shall wait and see where this goes over the next few pages as it’s still early in the story or at least depending on how long this will be.

Kato

Im finding humor in this comic though too. XD But maybe its cause im a conflict addicted bastard haha.

She’s fairly minor as far as people go but one hint of her previous lifestyle is her mercantile skill being 100 (yes I just insinuated that prequel is canon)

Sammun

I hope katia releases the khajiit thief she has inside, and steals from the pile of gold later

Plushundredbarterfor1second

I just want to solidly compliment you on actually going through the persuasion minigame over the course of the conversation. Many kudos; I’d forgotten about that blasted mechanic for a while.
Brings back all the ol’ quotes from the three voice actors too…

OH THAT BITCH!!!!! I knew something would g owrong soon but not that fast!

Willhelm

She needs a shot of mead! she will wake up the next day nude with jelly on her neck, tons of shinys, and a member of the Thieves Guild (that happens to be disguised as a Mage hall)

C

Well. I suppose I’ll just go cry quietly somewhere now.

Motherfucker

Clanfear: Attempt to mate pretty smelling creature

That’d be good for a laugh, and a distraction! Too bad Katia is currently high on pheromones or whatever is in the bugmusk.

Seth

GETTING HIGH…..SOMETHING THAT IS VERY RETARTED!!!!!

Motherfucker

Very retarded, something you would know all about B)

Katia’s guardian angel

hahahahaha oh do post this in the command list !! This would be SO funny !!

oh please oh please oh please !

Godith

ok I am really pissed off about this turn of events. is the only point of this comic to make horrible things happen to katia? I mean this is getting ridiculous! she’s doing such a good job and nothing’s going her way, is that not enough sadness? you just HAVE to throw as many horrible things at her as you can? argh! I’m not going to keep reading this thing if this crap keeps happening. I mean, a little bump in the road is one thing, but right back to square one? ARASHDSHGHGSHL;LAL!!! RAAAAAAAAAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Seth

RAGE…..A FORCE NOT TO BE MISSED WITH!!!!!!

Tech

Oh, biiiiiiitch… X(

Seth

WTF!!! Kaz bro man, y would u do that. katia should be treated better than that. well i guess you know what your doing, so i cant wait to see how she gets out of this one. ( i hope katia burns her to ashes 🙂 . p.s. katia is hot.

Seth

BITCH…..FEMALE DOG AND SHITY WIFE!!!!

Seth

oops this was a reply to tech.

Alec

So… most likely a potion of personality or speechcraft. Maybe both.
The good news is that the effects will wear off. Who knows how much of it she could have though. And if its a crafted potion… under the right conditions, it could have the power of adding 45 points for 146 seconds and would be made of troll fat and imp gall.

Than I could get into the fact that Sigrid is a nord, and figure out how much she would have in the get go. But I was more interested in the potion.

Seth

yes sir

Zerithos

All us proper ES gamers are now somewhat pissed. The potion is Telvanni Bug Musk, and does 100 extra points. This stuff is from Morrowind, fyi. Also, Sigrid has 100 Speechcraft to start with, and is a goddamned MAGE. She could have lasting Speechcraft spell boosts and maybe even some potions in her drink? And plus the pear sauce could be poisoned to damage personality. Or just drain it.

Zerithos

Shit. Just made MYSELF groan. The Musk only does 40 pts, but proper fortify personality.

Hopefully Sigrid will get hit by fortify personality hangover. Also, Apple-Pear Surprise may damage health (luckily counteracted by venison and aloe), but it doesn’t do anything to personality.

It does however *drum roll* damage luck.
With the luck she had this far Katia didn’t just get f…, she just got Muatraed.
:<

OldSchoolRPGDude

WOW, that’s a lot of comments. Kaz, I believe you’ve found another “button” to press with your audience. Congratulations! ;D

I can’t wait for Katia to donate her medallion, if it’s not already obscured somewhere on the table in that pile of clutter. Oh. Hell. Yes.

Phonx

When Sigrid Said She Was Going To Get The “Ice-Cream” Stephane Got Up And Left. He Is Obviously In On This Scamming Stuff, And Maybe When Sigrid Says She’s Getting The “Ice-Cream” It Really Might Mean Something Like “Time To Execute Plan Rob This Person Blind, Please Go And Prepare The Spooky Bloody Chained Door For Another Corpse”

Timothy

Shit…

*Glasses*

… just got real.

Asmodeus42

…did I miss a pun? … ‘cus that joke only works if you make a pun…

tiredofthisshit

I’ve removed this from my bookmarks. I’ll be moving soon, and it will likely be months before I get the Internet again–and when I do, it will be on a different computer.

This site is gone to me now. Sorry, but this is too much like an abusive relationship to me: constantly being beaten on, with only the occasional pause so that you can recover and hope that maybe, just maybe things will turn up. It will never get better, people.

Goodbye.

Bad_Skeelz

SIGRID YOU BITCH

I AM DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING OBLIVION RIGHT NOW (ALONG WITH ALL NECESSARY MODS) TO KILL YOU

DEAD
DEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD

Seth

if i could meet you there, i would join you to KILL THAT BITCH!!!!!

OldSchoolRPGDude

LOL, you ppl are awesome. 😀

Seth

i know right.

Bad_Skeelz

Know who isn’t awesome?

SIGRID

CAUSE SHE’S DEAD

Rarborman

Saw some convo about people in the story not in game, and thaught to self… What if Gro-upp is the main character? It would work. He’s most likely to get arrested for life. Also most of the characters wouldnt really know him, so that nice to meet you again Jakhajiit shit wouldnt pop up. Which… means, the Jakajiit is an npc.

Furnut

haha nicely done with the last panel 😀

Kato

Kato is sad to inform everyone but Sigrid survives Kvatch.

eternity08

I would like to say to anyone who is “quitting” Prequel because of all of this shit going on, these few words.
The revenge shall be made all the sweeter.

DaHero

No, no it won’t. This is the camel that broke the back for hundreds of fans, and the NEXT time it happens, it will continue to do so.

Katia has never gotten revenge, there isn’t a hope to be had, Kaz is too busy writing up and acting out his own melodrama to care about actual player input.

The thing is, if there wasn’t a “enter commands here!” section, nobody would feel entitled. Kaz has essentially shot his own comic in the foot with every disaster post, simply because in the end, it’s all a railroad with ZERO input. The ONLY reason the comments continue to exist is so KazEmo can find a comment as a “voice” to rationalize his pathetic mullygrubbing.

eternity08

Okay, that’s your in-depth dissection of the story (and Kaz, to a degree). And whilst I don’t agree with it, it doesn’t enrage me enough to hate it.
So! Let me give you another perspective. Will you stop reading the story? Given how much you “dislike” how Kaz has written out the story, will you stop reading it? Or will you just ignore the problems, and continue reading?
…
Wait.
I’m trying to convince a person to believe what I believe despite them being vehemently against it.
…
Dear God! I’m an evangelist!

DKD

Inb4 Eepy the clanfear gets chopped up by the hero of Kvatch.

Or Asotil.

Illidan

That’d a good moment for a daedra invasion indeed.

Fano

Katia, Focus. You need all that stuff to get your job done, and as stated before she does have plenty of gold and such…but you NEED those items for the foundation of your new life…plus you owe Quillweave her money, and her debt is much more important than the Guild’s needs. Think rationally for one moment and you’ll know what you need to do.

EndUser

I agree that the problem is not that bad stuff happens to Katia. The subtitle implies that bad stuff will happen to her. It can still be a good story and have bad stuff happen to her a whole freaking lot. I see what you’re going for and it’s not an invalid or undoable concept.

The problem is that this is not good storytelling. It is repetitive and boring. You’re just cranking out the same basic plot over and over again. There’s no incentive to keep reading and it’s insulting to the few people who are still under the mistaken impression that the story is at all influenced by their suggestions. It wouldn’t matter if it were good stuff, or humdrum stuff, or even more horrible stuff happening to her – the fact that there is no mystery to this story means it is fundamentally lacking a basic element of storytelling.

As far as I can tell, this story has already ended. It ended months and months ago. It has done nothing else but repeat the same events in different settings over and over, with mild but negligible changes. There is virtually no progress or development that you do not routinely erase, making the previous storyline an utter waste of your readership’s time. Randomly and unnecessarily killing what *was* a really interesting necromancer character (after a lot of character development that turned out to be irrelevant) is a prime example.

It’s like if they made a Speed 3-26.

Not to be a complete asshole, I should say that the art, animations and especially the flash games are quite good. Thank you for your hard work.

andwhyisit

It is not going in circles. Even if Katia loses everything once again then she’ll still be better off than she was the last few times this has happened. Sure a fair amount of shit happens to Katia, but she grows stronger each time. It’s why we all follow her.

Seg

FOR FUCKS SAKE

Guvernor

Know this, Kaz, they wouldn’t be so upset if they weren’t so invested in your awesome story.

This is the best update yet!

Ignore the haters, nobody is gonna stop reading, they just really really don’t get it.

Top work and onward, Katia, to glory and subsequent failure!

Seth

i agree, great story. now you Guvernor got the right idea my genius friend.

Malcontent

People are quitting because they’re tired of nothing ever going right. I started reading because I like Katia, she’s a cool character but I honestly can’t keep reading his anymore.

I wish you well Kaz, you’re a great artist, but I can’t keep reading a story that makes me his angry.

Katia’s guardian angel

Hey people !

Is she sad ? Is she hurt ? Is all lost ?
Besides even if she does lose her money, see it as a payment for an expensive meal and some healing.
She coudn’t even afford a meal in that other place ?

I’m still holding faith the welkard-carrying-kitty from ages ago was making a delivery from Dimitri (or his necro-group) to the Kavatch Mages guild of necromancy…. mostly because i want him to have had SOME lasting effect…

Zerithos

Oh. My. God. I totally forgot about Dmitri’s cat. This could actually get interesting.

Telvanni bug

That has to be Telvanni bug musk! Even the flask is correc-

oh, of course I’m late to that revelation.

Darmenias

All I can say, and I hope someone will post this into the commands thread:
OBLIVION INVASION> COMMENCE!
We already know that Sigrid will end up as a horrible vendor in the refugee camp below Kvatch in-game, with no weapons, only a handful of items for sale and only a meager 200 septims as bartering money.
All I can hope for is that Katia robs her blind before the daedra arrive, so the piles of gold will at least go somewhere.

Doggod101

DAMN YOU STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! Katia could have left with nothing more then a nice meal and filled up mana but no strawberry ice cream had to go and exist and ruin everything like usual >_>

sacridshadow

And things were finally looking up. If this continues for the rest of the comic, there’ll never be any improvement in her personality or life. And notice that Steve left at the mention of ice cream. Katia should’ve done the same. Too many good things in one night.

Bluescale

Well, she arrived on ship in Anvil, which is the start of the most used alternate beginning/MQ delayer mod. She gained a level. She is ridiculously inept and clueless at this point, and she picked herself a name on arrival – not a Khajiit, or even typical Tamrielic one too.

My guess is that Katia is *the* PC. She will be running around the Cyrodiil getting into trouble, generally being miserable (see the subtitle) and making us sorry for her, until she eventually ends getting arrested in the IC (presumably for some horrid misunderstanding), then she will presumably steadily increase her kickassitude and eventually become the CoC (possibly also Sheogorath, especially with so many voices in her head telling her what to do) in what can be consider the most impressive salvage of a burning wreck (the TES IV itself, as made by Bethesda) to ever occur in gaming history, all thanks too Kazerad’s aptitude at creative storytelling and not commiting suicide when faced with a mountain range of retarded design to explain away.

Ocylith

I really don’t get what’s with all the butthurt. Honestly, this series is funny because she gets robbed every few episodes.

I love Katia as much as any of you, but damn. Calm down kids.

OldSchoolRPGDude

Seriously, right? I wonder what happened when these people watched The Empire Strikes Back. Did they hurl their drink at the screen and wet themselves?

ExOttoyuhr

Choo choo! All aboard the Bug Musk Express!

One consolation: I was at least able to feed a real-world stray cat, while reading about the misfortunes of a fake-world one. Kindness to animals can soften the blow of Kazerad’s latest decision to put the story back on its sociopathic rails…

Krakin

I don’t see how people don’t see the improvements? At the beginning of the comic, she had nothing but a lockpick. Something bad happened, she bounced back and earned a little more than what she had originally. Then something bad happened, she lost most everything, then earned back more than that. So even if Sigrid does take most everything from Katia, Katia will bounce back with more stuff than she lost.

I find it even stranger that so many get overly angry at the “unexpected” result. All the talk about how “this is the straw that broke the camel’s back”, it’s bull. You really didn’t see this coming? Either you’ve ignored the entirety of Katia’s journey up to this point or you literally have no foresight.

WinteR

Agreed. After the well event turned out okay, I was surprised we’d gone so long w/o a major disaster. I knew we must be getting close to the next fall.

tech

Katia: get even and rob her right back! Nick a few handfulls of gold on your way out (Khajit get a racial bonus to Steal and Sneak, don’t they?), get a room at the Ritch Bitch B&B; in the morning, buy a proper weapon, get Quillweave her book, and get the bartender you antagonized an “I’m sorry” card. Walk back in triumph with A.S.O.T.I.L., educated as to why everyone hates the Kvatch mage’s guild.

Daniel

First of all I would like to congratulate the author for the excellent work. It is a story very well developed, not to mention that it is extremely funny.

Although Katia has won my sympathy, her recent successes and minor failures ended up making the story a bit monotonous. Many interesting scenarios were created with promises of surprises or disappointments (both possibilities exitantes), and even though some have been beheaded, I still hope to see the outcomes.
This coup has just created the ideal circumstances for our dear Katia getting depressed again with her failures and turn to alcohol to feel better about herself and avoid the recurring nightmare with the monstrous (Daedra?) King centipede. Not that I do not like the success of it, but it is passing the time of see again our dear Katia waking up drunk in the house of Quill-Weave after make unspeakable things.
After the amnesia would be interesting if the drunk and horny Katia did unspeakable things with the very Quill-Weave, now that she knows her friend’s interests. Another possibility which promises insanity is the involvement with the manslayer legionary who blink instead of sleep. The two together would be even more strange and awkward, but a new character with new surprises would also be interesting, but I still would like to see something really funny involving Quill-Weave.

Cork

I love this comic…

I love Katia…

And I love what’s happening right now.

This conversation of comments is a good thing; even the negative ones in some respect. If something can gather this much people to actually state their opinions on the subject matter, the creator is successful.

Do you not all see? This is the purpose of Kaz’s actions. A writer wants controversy, defense, and conversation to come from readers. That is the entire purpose of writing or drawing in the first place. To gain a fandom.

Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, DC: all of those have the most bickering fan-bases in history, and are also considered some of the greatest in their field of expertise.

For all those who say that what is happening is bad storytelling or something like that, realize; though not conventional, and perhaps even a little repetitive; any story that can incite so much sadness rage and support is GREAT storytelling.

You know I am actually fucking sick of this bullshit, I don’t know what kept bringing me back here but I have had enough of this comic, it updates too slowly, and there is no sense of progression because Katia is bumped back to square one every second panel. Its basically the same song and dance repeated in different settings before a quick rinse so that we can move on without accomplishing anything, seriously, fuck this.

WinteR

You kept coming back because she isn’t put back at square one every time. Each time she gains something, a new friendship, a new skill, a level. Eventually it all adds up.

p

This is getting a little too rinse-and-repeat. Chance at fortune, terrible downfall. Chance at fortune, terrible downfall. Over and over just so it can happen again for its own sake. Some sense of direction other than “Katia runs around the world miserably failing at everything in horrible soul-crushing ways” would be nice… that’s what I thought this part would be, her first chance at actually advancing the plot to a noticeably new and fresh stage. But it looks like we’re set up for another pathetic back-to-square-one just so she can go get dashed against the rocks in a slightly different way again.

Graknorke

She is not at square one at all, it would be difficult for her to have less than she came with, which was a lockpick and some rather poor-quality clothes. Let’s list what she’s got so far shall we?

Who says she has full magicka?
Flax + “mushroom paste” + Evil Master Alchemist = gods know what!
And anyway do you know what Apple + Pear + Evil Master Alchemist = ?
Potion of Damage Health that’s what!
She’s going to be lucky to wake up naked tied to a daedric altar about to be sacrificed, LUCKY I tell you!
The only way Katia is getting out of here in with a net gain is if the hooded guy turns out to be who we think he is and hands her Sanguine’s Rose for her great services to the cause of debauchery.

Bluescale

Aloe+Venison=restore health, I think as far as poisons go Katia is safe-ish.

But Telvanni Bug musk?
*Looks at the contents of his inventory in abject horror*
I.. I don’t think I’ll ever bring myself to use it again in Morrowind.

Graknorke

Wow, there sure are a lot of overreactions in here, I don’t see how somebody could read up to this far without being amused by Katia’s failures and her building herself back up only to fail again. It’s amusing because she’s a fictional character created by Kazerad for the amusement of himself and his audience without really affecting any real people in a negative way.

If you honestly are getting upset over an alcohol-intolerant, bumbling, failure-prone cat person then you might have issues seperating fantasy from reality. Because guys, she ISN’T REAL.

Gosh! I’ll kill Sigrid next time I play Oblivion!
Hahahah I love what you’re doing with Kvatch! ^^

Crumplehat

Although many people seem ready to jump to this conclusion, I’m not convinced Sigrid’s intentions here are anything more than demonstrating for Katia that her means of procuring funds is not, as has been obliquely suggested by her, to be strong-arm theft and prostitution. Until she rakes in Katia’s and Eepy’s paltry possessions, I’m going to withhold my call of Shenanigans on this.

smetzler

You know what sucks? Monotony. Like in Lord of the Rings. When Frodo had to hide from the ringwraiths, then hide from them again? Bogus. Then he had to hide from orcs? He spent all three movies walking. A lot of walking. And so many people wanted to take the ring from him. BORING. Or Harry Potter. Golly, that was bad. Every year there was a problem. Everyone was working for Voldemort. God. Talk about repetitive, am I right people? Who wants conflict in their story? Not me. I was expecting Katia to join the Mage’s Guild, find the book of Ultimate Power and become Queen of the Universe and drink happy-skooma for the rest of her days. But instead I got story. Instead I got plot. Instead I got an interesting twist. Instead I get consistency.

You make me sick, Kazerad. How could you not make things easy and pointless for Katia? Isn’t that what we all wanted? For her to level up a 100 times and master all arts of magic in one day? And how dare you not violently change the tone of the story? I mean, why couldn’t you go from months of making her life miserable to making everything work out in a second? Let me guess, you wanted to be consistent and write a good story? Well, that’s not what we want. We don’t want months of implied malevolence which is later revealed to be true in a creative way. We want nonsensical shifts in tone and plot that make everything up to that point pointless. When I read the subtitle “Making a Cat Cry: The Adventure” I did not expect the story to have actual reasons for any felinic creature to shed eye juice. This is truly the worst comic ever made. You better hope I don’t see you walking in my neighborhood of Gnisis or you’re getting enslaved, you N’wah.

Pogiforce

She’s allergic to happy-skooma.

The Amazing d20

Hey, a writer from The Onion. Niiiiice.

Invertin

I like how everyone is like AAUGH NOOO WE’RE BACK TO SQUARE ONE

well

no we’re not

Katia has her magic powers, she has her confidence, she’s in Kvatch- a new town, she’s getting more confident and for once she’s HAPPY. Yes, she’s being tricked, but she won’t realize it because of how charm works.

Frankly the fact that she’s in a good mood and had some good food is progress. 3 steps forwards, 2 steps back.

Pogiforce

People are saying she’s gained confidence and skills and so she’s not back to square one, but her confidence hinged on actually getting stuff done. that nothing bad happened. she didn’t lose quil weave’s letter, she sucessfully picked up the package for quil weave. But now if she’s getting robbed, that package is gone. she’s failed quil weave. Again. her friend was counting on her. if it were me in that situation my self confidence would plummet. maybe even turn to drinking.

WOuld be terribly ironic if in a drunken haze she competed in the dancing contest, actually won, and got the money to replace quil weave’s book. Success in failure.

Probably won’t happen, but I can be hopeful.

Brightside

Yeah… I hate to say it, but this predictable, repetitive pattern of up and down has made me question Kaz’s writing skill. This kind of writing is an emotional cop out, I hate to say. You’re picking the path of least resistance for cheap yanks at hearstrings, and it ruins any immersion or believability. This kind of stunt doesn’t make us go “poor Kat!”, it makes us go “wtf kaz”. All our attention is ripped from the actual story because we’re busy questioning the author. We’re talking more about Kaz than Katia, and that is a pretty clear indicator that the suspension of disbelief has been slaughtered. The author shouldn’t even come in to a discussion, because that means we are accepting the story as a mere creation of someone with a tablet and Internet connection. We’re thinking more about how the sausage is made than how it tastes.

These ‘twists’ aren’t even entertaining, they’re just exasperating. There is no longer any development, nor even a basic plot arc. I’ll probably keep checking up to see if it actually goes anywhere, but I’m not hopeful.

You’rer a great character writer, kaz, but work on developing an actual plot. I don’t want to see these characters go to waste.

penisman

To anyone who is butthurt over the fucking up of your khajiit waifu: read the sub-title
now go cry

Woah sir, watch the website links ): -Kaz

Yinello

I can kinda see why people get upset over Katia being screwed over for the umpteenth time. I also wasn’t happy with this update (dang you Kaz for making me emotionally attached to this character). However I would have been upset had this been one of Katia’s slashwrist moments where she accepts failure. This is completely not her fault and hopefully will contribute to Katia’s growth.

*adds another person to the list of people Katia needs to set on fire*

dumpsterrat

I so didn’t see this coming, unlike Stephene, who I notice GTFO as soon as he spotted how things were going. Talk about the Hidden Persuaders, Sigrid is right out front with her business here, spreading her net before the eyes of her prey.

I’m not going to ask where Eepy keeps his bag o’ stuff.

Cheezie

first time posting a comment here and I just want to say this:

honestly I’m not mad about this at all. Sigrid /did/ put the personality mini game to use on Katia without most of the readers even noticing it and if you think about it, when you’re going through the quests, sometimes you’ve gotta do manipulation of your own, persuading people into giving you the info or items you want. plus, she used [assumed to be] that musk stuff as well which would’ve probably boosted her personality/speechcraft then all she needed was that one small compliment to finish the job.

I actually laughed. I liked it. I liked how Kaz took something from the actual game play and snuck it in there like this, as if to demonstrate how it’d look or work in normal conversation. It’s creative. Sure, it made me facepalm a little inside but I don’t get why anyone’s being so rash about this. I’m still very interested to see how things turn out in the next page because to me, it feels like once there’s an update, people who have raged about this update will have raged and left/stopped reading for nothing because the next page could be /anything/.

that’s just my oppinion on this whole thing. this coming from someone who only recently started playing oblivion in november and am near complete with the game [and its expantion packs] where I’ve grown attached to the ES universe and this comic is demonstrating things in a humorous manner while still keeping it realistic to the game.

also, that hesitant re-seat face <3

WinteR

Agreed 100%. I also started playing Oblivion around November, and I love how Kaz puts these references to actual gameplay in there.

Link

Wow, there was actually an end to the comment section xD

Good gods this page got people riled up…
It’s not like they could really believe that everything would go smoothly from now on… well they could, but that would be silly of them.

If there wasn’t any setbacks in the comic it wouldn’t be at all as interesting to read.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t wanna see Katia managing to fix this by getting QW’s book back and possibly some of that hoarded gold and then leg it before the Oblivion portal opens.

I, for one, am still interested to see where this will end up so I’m sticking around. =)

Pogiforce

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you in that no hardships is boring. She needs to have a problem to overcome. That said, she never actually overcomes her problems. she never succeeds in accomplishing anything substantial. This is just the latest event, at this point longtime readers recognize the trend. most likely she’ll blame herself even when it couldn’t be helped, try to do something to make it better, end up nearly killing herself in the process before sulking back to Quil Weave with tears in her eyes begging for yet another second chance. I really admire that Argonian for her patience, I really do. because as much as I like Katia I would have given up on her by now if it were me.

And I think what makes it so upsetting for people is they were finally letting themselves to become hopeful, like Katia. they were thinking “ANy minute now, things are going to turn south for her, don’t get your hopes up.” but she had such a string of good luck recently, in spite of the well incident, that the readers are going. “Maybe things are really looking up. maybe she’ll really be able to make something of herself.” and just when people are starting to become optimistic, this happens. “Goddammit Kazerad.”

As for what was said about blaming the author vs blaming the character, we know that Katia isn’t necessarily to blame. There was no way she could have fought Garug Gro-upp, the well was a simple impossibility with her current skill set, and while there was plenty to be suspicious of in the Mage’s Guild there was little to no forewarning that Sigrid would veritably brainwash poor katia and make her give up all her stuff. In these cases we can’t really blame the antagonists for her string of badluck either, since each situation was a different antagonist, and it’s not like they were singling her out. she was just unlucky. Fate wasn’t on her side. and fate is controlled by the author. so the author is who’s to blame. Whether or not you think that’s fair is up to you, and I can’t speak for the author’s intentions, but I can bet a lot of folks felt they got trolled by this sudden turnaround in her fortunes when things were finally starting to look up.

Ransom

Wow! Lot’s of reaction here. I hope Kaz doesn’t have to deal with this anytime he throws a curveball at Katia from here on out.

Completely unrelated to the twist at the end, I’ll say I loved the blank look with the mouth full of bread at the DND style comment. Also, betrayed by ice cream! For shame.

I’ll admit I felt a gut punch on the last panel, really effective but funny with the timing and our little clanfear pulling out his pouch too. I think part of the gut punch wasn’t just the ‘here we go again,” feeling as much as I think I, like a lot of readers and Katia herself, and begun to buy into Sigrid as a nice, if eccentric wizard. I was actually sad thinking of her fate in Oblivion. Now you’ve got people ready to install the game just to find her and extract justice! Well done!

And really in the scope of what’s happened so far, losing her stuff (if she does,be patient people) would be what, a 6 on a scale of 1-10 of the bad things that have happened to her? She could probably just have the bookstore owner rewrite the letter and she’s already got some opportunities to make up the money. And if the charm spell works like it seems to, at least Katia won’t cry over her lost goods, even if the readers do.

Pogiforce

I don’t think the bookstore owner would be willing to replace the letter, for a couple of reasons.

1. As I recall the book he attached to that letter was the last one of that kind he had. meaning he can’t replace it.

2. He’s stingy to the point that he won’t pay her for her services. Why would he replace the package she lost out of pocket?

3. From an outsider’s point of view she willingly gave away the package, violating her duty as a courier and his trust as her client. He’d blame her for it and I doubt would be willing to pay for her mistakes. Even though we as readers know it couldn’t be helped.

Ransom

“But Sigrid asked for it…”

“The most beautiful woman in the world? Oh okay then.”

😛

Pogiforce

Point taken.

Even still, I don’t think he has any more copies of that book. As I recall it was the last book of restoration magic he had, since he normally sells them to the mage’s guild… for 1 septim a piece…

No wonder he sells to her so cheap.

Since the mage’s guild must have all the magic books I imagine Katia could try to find one to steal, though I don’t think she’d be willing to do that. especially since as far as she can tell she’s willingly giving the book away.

Blizz

Oh goddammit. Asotil warned us about this WHOLE DAMN TIME and we just disregarded it! “Yet below the surface, there was something dark and manipulative, sad yet hopeful. Lawless yet noble. Oh how scandalously she could skirt the edges of every law, every regulation – following all the rules but playing her own, mysterious game. ” It’s right there in text.

lu bu

This makes me sad 🙁

Some Guy

Kaz, I love this comic more the longer it runs. Please tell me this will end up with one of the following

A) a cat crying
B) Katia getting drunk
C) Katia getting drunk and poledancing ending in forced exile from Kvatch
D) Katia setting the town on fire in a failed attempt to get her goods back.

Seth

or stealth bombers drop atomic bombs on the town, then invade it with M1A1 U.S. heavy tanks and Marines as a result to make the sexy katia managan happy and their commanding general. yah right yes :-)?

Zerithos

I’ll never look at Oblivion the same way again. The Siege Engine as a tank that in the eyes of a guy with a sword becomes a giant fireball spewing crawler?

Anyway…
OVERKILL

andwhyisit

“D” is looking increasingly likely.

Kevin

Is it just me or does Sigrid look slightly sad in the last picture?

Illidan

it’s the ‘holy crap, do you really only have that?’ face

Dan-za

Sigird’s perfume suddenly smells familiar, something strange, but you can’t put your finger on it at first. Then a realization occurs to you! That scent the perfume is giving off is the same scent of the nobel in your nightmares, the same scent that he uses to constantly cloud your mind and ruin your life, the same scent that led you to become what you were in hammerfell! The nobel’s hideous face seems to appear where Sigird’s used to be! You cannot let him win! You cannot let him control your life for eternity! Fight this evil manifestation before it is too late! You, Katia, will prevail! Look him the eyes and say”I AM KATIA FUCKING MANAGAN!” so even the Nine will hear you! Take back what you own and show him that he will NEVER manipulate you again!

Goodbye

More than likely I will no longer read this. I gave this comic the benefit of the doubt when Katia lost everything the first time outside the ruin. The only thing missing (which I’m sure is soon to come) is Katia to randomly get smashed, have sweaty sex with a troll, and wake up in Quilweave’s bedroom with it on fire. She has finally gone all the back to absolutely nothing once again and has let down everyone again, mainly herself. I am going to go ahead and stop reading this and imagine that Sigrid talked Katia into killing herself so that she can have an undead minion out of her corpse. That would make for a more inspirational read than this garbage.

Link

You’re missing the part where Katia can never go back to square one. No matter what happens to her, less than death, she will still have her magic knowledge.

The only thing that would make me lose some interest in the comic is if this is just another excuse to get Katia back in the bottle. She’s been doing really well and I’d hate to see that ruined again. No matter how amazing that pineapple and jojo trick is…

JaSnake

Give her your necklace too, just for good measure you FLIGHTY FELINE FREAK!!!!!

Seth

**** U. its not her its sigrid, that b***h!!!!

Pogiforce

You missed the point Seth. If she gives her her amulet she becomes a ticking fire bomb. And then he’s attempting to light the fuse with a catbased insult. He’s trying to help Katia murder Sigrid for this.

eternity08

Actually, that’s the most common suggestion so far in the suggestion commands. Turns out that many people just want Katia to horribly disfigure Sigrid with her pyrokinetic abilities. Go figure.

Link

Which only means that they are unaware that Sigrid is still alive and not very scorched after the Oblivion invasion.

eternity08

But even horrific burns can be cured by the Power Of Restoration!
Anyway, we don’t want Sigrid to die. Just suffer in unimaginable agony.

Seth

anyone know when the next part comes out?

David Argall

No guarantees, but the 17th is probably the first likely date.

Seth

DAM YOU SIGRID!!! i will find you and kill you no matter WHAT!!!!! YOU WILL DIE!!! first ill tie you to a table then tie your mom to a chair. then i will take out the chainsaw and chop up your…..wait i want it to be a surprise :-). im coming sigrid, i will find you. HA HA HA HA!!!!! yah im a crazy son-of-b***h. lol. also good story kaz. 🙂

Seth

everybody i know whats going to happen. stealth bombers are going to drop atomic bombs on the town, then invade it with M1A1 U.S. heavy tanks and Marines as a result to make the sexy katia managan happy and their commanding general. last katia will use the American War Machine to take over the country and rule with a iron fist. if anyone says about katia in a hurtful way she will launch a nuclear warhead on their house. GO KATIA MANAGAN!!! ALL MIGHTY RULER!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!

The Whicher

Look at how this update is refreshing compared with the previous ones.
Already above 350 comments 😛

k9mouse

I am new to this story (and enjoying it thus far…) I just wondering often does it update? once a week? If so, what day of the week does it update? -Thanks

RKeno

Usually once a week, yes, but there’s not a specific day though… It’s mostly near the weekends I think.

Lobito

Just wanted to say, Kaz, that I love the comic and you are doing such a fantastic job. Sure, I’m disappointed at this turn of events, but not disappointed in YOU or the COMIC. This is part of the rollercoaster of the story, and you’re doing a simply amazing job including people’s input (from what I can tell of your efforts to tally people’s votes, etc.) and make a coherent story. The amount of ragequitting going on here is… boggling. Anyway, you’re awesome and your comic is awesome and don’t let the haters get you down.

Surge

Most rollercoasters go -up- at some point.

Lobito

Yeah, because discovering magic powers, honing them, having an awesome dinner party wherein she didn’t screw things up even though royalty was present, getting sweet robes, learning a second spell, and making more money she’s had since the story began are all downers.

If this turns out better than everyone’s expecting, we’re gonna owe Kaz one heck of an apology.

TekkamanChronos

Well, Lets have some hope maybe she’s doing this to teach her a lesson.
” And that is how you get scammed in this town, Here at this guild we’ll teach you how to avoid things like this, and hey maybe do it yourself in a pinch”..
You know something like that >_>

The Amazing d20

So…am I the only guy that doesn’t see much of a minus from this? I rather think that Sigrid won’t even bother with most of Katia’s crap, so she’s only gonna really lose her septims.

Unless, of course, our good friend Nah has anything to say about this.

(P.S.: Is Sigrid a PC? Only PCs can do the Speechcraft ‘minigame’, right? If so, we might wanna switch over to her. This isn’t a suggestion, though; just a thought.)

Forlorn

Katia, the current situation you are in is a direct contribution to this demon. The time to rise is nigh! YOU are a beutiful Khajiit, YOU are brave by starting anew in a land you don’t know, YOU are a mage! Don’t let this demon or anyone else control you! YOU ARE KATIA FUCKING MANAGAN! OVERCOME YOUR FEARS AND BECOME THE GREATEST HERO OF ALL OF TAMRIEL! CONTERET HONSTIBUS ET TUUM VICTORIA!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFF9E…ailpage#t=147s)

Shadowscale

suggestions for katia are in the forum comments here are just for feedback i suggest if u want to influence the plot you try the forums 🙂

Warsun

OK i have to say this.Don’t you have a letter to deliver? That is for one.2 This may be Oblivion she is in.But i`m in Skyrim.But after what i was being charged for gear and equipment i have to say.Get out of there an toughnen up.There is plenty of stuff to find to make some cash off of.

Dont hang around trying to get in to guilds.The guild thing takes too much work for a scrub!Yes Scrub!

Surge

Just kill her already and get it over with, you colossal ass.

Surge

Whoops! She caught feline HIV from all that unprotected sex! What an unfortunate twist!

Oh no! She also has cancer!

Motherfucker

Now that’s hardly sporting~

She can still make it…~

Pogiforce

I know there’s a lot of “Kaz I hate you!” going on right now, but I find myself oddly irritated by the number of people also going “They be hatin, leave Kaz alone!” as if he needs somebody to defend him.

Beano Curufinwe

This page gave me very conflicted feelings, but I think I have more respect for the author now.

A lot of the narratives I love caused me emotional pain. The time I first played Final Fantasy Seven, I borrowed a friend’s computer version. After Sephiroth got to Aeris, I killed the stupid boss and walked over every inch of the room for a half hour. Then the computer crashed because I didn’t have the second disk, and I had to reboot the computer and go to bed. That unusual stress made the later part of the game much more vibrant in my mind.

Remember Candide married his dream girl. She was old, ugly, and bitter, (and missing one buttock), but it was still a memorable story, and nice in a way. Maybe Katia will die (she came close in that well!) but I trust Kazerad can make it a memorable story.